Progress

It's been a few weeks since I began the journey to get rid of everything that doesn't serve a purpose in my home or doesn't make it pretty.  I had all these grand ideas for before and after pictures and counting everything.  Which is still pretty do-able, but a lot of before pictures have not been taken.

I've been working mostly in my bedroom and living room.  I've managed to clear out a lot of clothes, a lot of DVD's, old candles, books, and some other miscellaneous items.  I think one of my bigger problems in life is not finishing what I start.  I can be a bit all over the place.  So I'm trying to narrow my work down to these two rooms, little by little until they're completely emptied.

First I started in my bedroom.  I've been in my home for 6 years and I have yet to really decorate this room.  Why?  I have no idea.  It's the place where I rest it should be refreshing so I wanted to start there.  I started with clothes, because I have so many and for some reason I always shop at places where the clothes don't last too long and its silly because I'm not 23 anymore.  So I just have all of these clothes some I love some I really don't like, it's what I have and now I'm trying to spend less so it's just what I'm working with.  So far I've packed up 2 garbage bags full of clothes.  I still have my closets to go through but here are a few during and after pictures:

These are my shorts I had like 40 pair.  Why, I have no idea, you rarely see me in them,  I only got rid of a handful though.  The rest were put in a storage bin under my bed to be reevaluated in the spring. (a little bit of a fail but not really.)

I have 2 small dressers and a little cabinet full of t-shirts, tanks, gym clothes and comfy pj's.  This is the pile of all of it.  I got rid of so much of it.  Old tanks, I even got rid of perfectly good sweatpants because I had way too many pairs, tshirts that I held on to for no reason, and I also set aside t-shirts that I love but don't really wear; ones that hold special meaning for a t-shirt quilt (my mom is awesome at that kind of stuff.)

Here are the afters, imagine unorganized clothes spilling out everywhere for the before's, and look at that top left... EMPTY!

I can't tell you how much easier it is too keep it organized and to find things that I actually like to wear.  Next up in my bedroom is the closets, hopefully this weekend.

Then I moved downstairs, I started in my entertainment center because it had so much stuff in it, lots of storage is good unless you fill it with a bunch of junk just because you can.

I started with getting rid of pretty much all of my DVDs which, was easier than I thought it would be.  I've always loved movies and used to go to the 4 for $20 spot at blockbuster, weekly.  I realized though that I was very rare that I would pick a movie out of my collection to watch.  I'd either find something on netflix or Redbox it.  So I decided to keep my very favorites (Christmas movies, anything Will Ferrell or Tom Hardy) and get rid of the rest. 

There were so many miscellaneous things in my entertainment center that I won't go through everything I got rid of but here are some afters so far.  The top two pictures were cabinets that were overflowing with DVD's, some candles, some old small group stuff, etc.  Now it's condensed to one.  The one on the left isn't full and it's actually easy to see the DVD's I have.  The books on the right are some of my favorite recipe books that are hanging out there until I get shelves up in my dining room.  So basically it'll be empty.  Bottom are some candles and photo albums and a Sega Genesis I just couldn't part with.  Simple. Simple. Simple.

I've gone a little crazy in clearing things out, I pretty much took everything off of my entertainment center, it felt cluttered to me, so I'm taking everything down and starting over with the decorating phase when I'm finished.  (I can't wait to get rid of all those CD's to the left!)

The problem is a lot of things are making their way to my office.  Things I'm not sure what to do with.  Things I don't want to get rid of but don't necessarily belong in my entertainment center or bedroom.  I have a feeling this room is going to be a pretty big mess for the next couple of months.  Which isn't my favorite because usually it's my creative space.  It needs work too, those squares are full of STUFF.  Some of it necessary some of it I'm sure is not.  This will be my last room to tackle.  But I'll probably snap a pano of it for each post just to see the changes.

Total count as of today...